Purpose: The purpose of this initiative is so that through the hype of this initiative, our Balavihar students get an understanding of CORD and seva - as Gurudev puts it, service to humanity is service to the Lord of Lords. It is less about fundraising and more about awareness across our Balavihar platform. Nonetheless, their contributions are still valuable, however little.

RULES: Penny Wars is an initiative between each class group. Each class group will be assigned one jar, and these jars will be lined up at your center during Balavihar. Each class will be putting in pennies into their own jar; students are also encouraged to put quarters, dimes, nickels, dollar bills, or any other type of money into other class’s jars. Pennies in a class’s jar bring positive points to that class group. Nickels, dimes, quarters, bills all bring negative points. At the end of the month, the class with the highest collected amount wins!

What is the proposed use for the funds raised? The money raised from this initiative can be used to help your local Bhutanese Community. If your center does not have a Bhutanese refugee community in proximity, the funds can be donated to the national CORD USA cause, or to CORD causes around the globe. These causes include funds needed for CORD Sri Lanka, CORD Deuladiha, and others. In previous years, we raised up to 9K from the participating centers! These funds went into funding various projects helping the Bhutanese across North America. In some centers, we were able to hold Balavihar workshops by CHYKs for the Bhutanese children.

How to get started?

Please contact chykwest@cordusa.org if you would like to host your own Penny Wars! You can download FAQ and flyer from here.

We are happy that the program was able to be implemented in these different centers and that we were able to fulfill our two-fold mission at these centers:

1) Inculcate the spirit of giving in our Balavihar children.

2) Raise awareness about the Bhutanese Refugee Empowerment Program.

In 2016,

Dallas center raised $1699.56. They requested it to be applied BREP DFW.

Huntsville-Madison center's initiative was a huge success, sevak Aparna had sent an email with much information on their implementation of the program. The students in the winning class are receiving a cash prize of $10 each and a check for the amount of $450 was given to the Bhutanese efforts in Nashville.

Washington DC, Yuvaveer Nirav Shah was able to spearhead the initiative in his session to raise $220.

Florida centers - Tampa and Miami spear headed by Swamini Akhikalanadaji raised $1587.67 and they requested these funds to be allowcated to CORD projects in India or Sri Lanka, as head of CORD USA deem needed.

In 2015, Bentonville raised a little less than $300.00.

In 2014, five centers participated to raise around $9000. The centers were Austin, Bentonville, Dallas, Ann Arbor, and Portland.